Canada took a huge step towards Rugby World Cup 2015 qualification on Saturday as they beat the USA 27-9 in Charleston, South Carolina. Canada has moved up one place in the IRB Rankings as a result. The two sides meet again this coming weekend.

Phil Mack scored after just 25 seconds to give the visitors a great start, before DTH van der Merwe and Harry Jones added to the scoreline with tries of their own. James Pritchard kicked 12 points.

"Certainly we've got a lot of work to do before next Saturday, but I'm really happy with the way we stuck through it." said head coach Kieran Crowley.

Canada will take an 18 point advantage into the second leg of the qualifying series, which takes place in Toronto this coming weekend. The winner will join France, Ireland and Italy in Group D of the 2015 tournament in England.

The runner-up will have to face Uruguay for a back-door qualifier to decide Americas number two seed, and the winner of that will go into Group B with South Africa, Scotland and Samoa.

Canada has a fair bit of solid developmental talent. Hirayama, Braid, Ardron, etc. Give us a few more years to play tests like is (especially with guys like Ardron getting pro experience in Europe) and you've got the room to make an Argentina-esque case for being in Tier 1